Please join us on May 2, 4pm, at the MIT Media Lab, E14 - 6th Floor Lecture 
Hall (followed by a reception in the Winter Garden Room) for the MIT STS 
Program’s 2016 Morison Prize Lecture with Dr. Lydia Villa-Komaroff.


Thinking Fast makes Changing Slow
-Lydia Villa-Komaroff
American research, and educational institutions and industries have encountered 
difficulties in attracting and retaining individuals from under-represented 
groups. This is particularly true in STEM disciplines, despite decades of 
well-meaning efforts by government, universities, and employers.  Why is this?  
One possible reason rarely is mentioned: psychologists and other social 
scientists have long recognized that humans make systematic errors in 
judgement. Hard-wired, simple, efficient rules that all humans use to make 
decisions (“thinking fast”) may lead to misjudgments about the capacity and 
potential of individuals from under-represented groups. Scientists in the 
“hard” sciences have been particularly resistant to the notion that the way 
humans make decisions can result in biases that lead to discrimination. Several 
real world examples demonstrate that academic institutions can make remarkable 
progress in recruiting under-represented groups as students and faculty when 
they recognize and compensate for the realities of how the human mind works.

____________________________________________

Gus Zahariadis
Assistant to the Director
Program in Science, Technology, and Society

T: (617) 253-3452
F: (617) 258-8118




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